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New Browser For Web Video
IBM recently announced that they were developing a new browser with the potential to enable visually impaired users to access multimedia such as streaming video. Currently named A-Browser, the tool will give visually-impaired people the same control over multimedia content that sighted people currently have using a mouse.
Users will be able to control video replay speed, volume and even speed up the sound. The latter is an important feature as screen reader users may be used to a much faster audio track than streaming videos offer normally to sighted users. The browser will also be able to accommodate an additional audio description to further support users.
Volume controls will allow the user to adjust the sound of various sources independently — for example a main audio track, an additional audio description track and the output from their screen reader.
The company had said that it plans to open source the browser in order to accelerate enhancement and adoption of the tool in the hope that it will be made available to the largest possible number of people. For the time being, the browser’s developers are concentrating on content that is compatible with Real Player and Windows Media Player.